


like the jade dragons

by JadeNightTheWriter



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bands, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, Gen, Mild Angst (very very mild), Rewrite of "Jade Dragons", band au, thats... a lot of aus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28383642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeNightTheWriter/pseuds/JadeNightTheWriter
Summary: Winter looked up as his roommate—Qibli—burst through the door, a hastily folded flyer held tightly in one hand. Quickly, he shuffled his papers so the lyrics were underneath his schoolwork, and snapped “What?” at the freckled boy.“‘Pyrrhia and Pantala Music Contest’,” Qibli quoted from the flyer he thrust in Winter’s face. “It’s our chance.”(Aka that one human band AU that you asked for but I wrote horribly, so I rewrote it completely.)Updates once a week on Monday.
Relationships: Everyone & Everyone, Jade Winglet & Dragonets of Destiny, Moon & Winter & Turtle & Qibli & Kinkajou & Umber
Comments: 20
Kudos: 13





	1. Winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Could_be_better](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Could_be_better/gifts).



> Finally, _finally_ I wrote this out. I say this is a rewrite of [Jade Dragons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24360289), but in reality I took the exposition and threw the rest out the window. Feel free to go and read the old version, although I, quite frankly, don’t like it.
> 
> Moving on, this fic is vastly different from the first one, which some of you probably read first before finding this. My writing style has changed slightly since then, and I hope it’s a bit smoother than before. Additionally, the plot has changed a lot. The "arc 2 rewrite" is nonexistent, and the world building has also shifted slightly, so I apologize if that may confuse some of you.
> 
> That said, thank you for reading this long author's note, and please enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look the title is actually very creative shhh stop judging me-
> 
> (It came from their theme song that I wrote a while ago ^-^)

Winter looked up as his roommate—Qibli—burst through the door, a hastily folded flyer held tightly in one hand. Quickly, he shuffled his papers so the lyrics were underneath his schoolwork, and snapped “What?” at the freckled boy.

“‘Pyrrhia and Pantala Music Contest’,” Qibli quoted from the flyer he thrust in Winter’s face. “It’s our chance.”

Frowning, Winter snatched the paper from him.

“Seven hundred dollars?” he demanded, spying the entrance fee in the bottom corner. “We can’t afford that!”

“Well duh,” Qibli said, sounding a bit less out of breath. “That’s why we’re raising money, starting now. We have a month, so plenty of time.”

Winter scoffed, “‘Plenty of time’, he says, as a group of middle schoolers try to make _seven hundred dollars_ in _one month_.”

Qibli beamed at him. “Exactly! Come on, let’s go.”

“Fine, fine!” Winter said. Qibli would have eventually convinced him anyway, and his schoolwork sounded extremely unappealing at the moment.

Ignoring the cheer from the other boy, Winter grabbed a jacket and tied on his sneakers, before grabbing his keys and turning to wait for Qibli. The other boy returned from his bed holding a large box, which Winter knew was filled with various percussion instruments. 

The two left their room, locking the door behind them, and made their way through the hallways of Jade Mountain Music Academy. Qibli waved at a younger girl that they passed—Ostrich, Winter thought. 

As they neared the location the rest of their club had chosen, he caught sight of a small crowd forming. 

“It looks like it’s going pretty well,” Winter said, as Moon caught sight of him and waved. He raised a hand in greeting, while he and Qibli wove through the crowd toward her. 

“Hey Moon,” Qibli said. “How’s it going?”

Moon waved a hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. 

“We made some money,” she said, tilting her head at a box near her feet. “But if we keep going at this rate we won’t make it.” 

Kinkajou made a face. “People like our performance, but they go away as soon as the song finishes. They don’t even give us like… a dollar or something.”

Turtle nodded. “It’s kind of frustrating.”

“Well,” Qibli said, in an effort to brighten the mood. “ _Winter_ here has a new song.”

“I do no— _Qibli!_ You snatched it when you picked up your percussion set, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Qibli agreed shamelessly. “Okay but check this out, it’s awesome.”

“Hang on, let me see,” Kinkajou said, peering over Moon’s shoulder. She hummed a few lines experimentally to herself, and turned back to Winter, eyes shining. “I _love_ it!”

Winter shrugged, uncomfortable. 

“Seriously, we need to enter this in the contest,” Qibli said. “Because we’ll get points for originality, _and_ it’s also really good. Like, I’m making this my ringtone for your number.”

“Please don’t,” Winter objected. “I do _not_ need to hear you try and record this before it’s finished. You’ll stay up until midnight and that can’t be good for you.”

“See, he does love me,” Qibli said to Moon, ignoring him completely.

“Um… guys?” Umber interrupted, before Winter could snap at him. “I think we should start the next song.”

Turtle nodded. “I think Kinkajou had a list, but we went through most of them already.”

“We can sing the other song Winter wrote,” Kinkajou offered. “We all know it pretty well, and it’s not like a bunch of random people are going to catch mistakes. 

“Sounds good,” Qibli said, and turned to face Winter. Winter decided he wanted nothing to do with the look on his face. 

“Winter can sing this one!” he offered cheerfully, not a second later. “Solo!”

“ _No_.”

* * *

“I placed my bets, took a risk,” Kinkajou sang, skipping ahead of the group, her bright pink-yellow ombre hair bouncing with every step. “Look where I landed, in the midst…”

Moon joined in, grinning at her best friend, and then Qibli did too.

“…all this chaos, and confusion, and love that’s not there…”

Winter walked behind them, hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face. Turtle and Umber had gone home before them, and the four of them together reminded him of when they’d first started the club. He pretended it annoyed him, but really he was glad he met all of them. 

“Race you to the Academy!” Kinkajou shouted, breaking him from his thoughts. 

She and Moon took off, laughing as the sun started to sink below the horizon.

“Terribly undignified,” Qibli said, with mock-haughtiness, watching the two fondly. “We would never allow such higgledy-piggledy shenanigans in the I.C.E. Palace.”

Winter made a face at him. “Was that supposed to be me? Terribly unimpressive, if so. I haven’t once said ‘higgledy-piggledy’ in my entire life.”

Qibli snickered, and Winter added, “We would never allow such linguistic imprecision in the I.C.E. Palace.”

Qibli laughed for real this time, nudging Winter’s shoulder with his own. A few months ago, he would have brushed off the contact. Now though, he simply gave Qibli a glare that they both knew he didn’t mean. 

“Come on,” Qibli said, grinning. “Let’s go home.”

  
  


* * *

“And I’ll rule the skies like the jade dragons once did!”

Kinkajou glanced down at the sheet of music in her hand, making a small note and singing the line again, letting her voice sail smoothly through the high notes. Beside her, Qibli shook his head with a smile. 

“I have no idea how you sing that,” Turtle said, glancing at Umber.

“Me neither,” Umber agreed, then added, “but that was super awesome!” 

“That was _one line_ , guys,” Kinkajou said, but she beamed at them. “I think we should do a soprano-alto-bass type split there.” 

“You as harmony, and Moon as the melody?” Winter asked. Kinkajou nodded, and he frowned at his paper. “Turtle, what do you think?” 

“I like it,” the green-haired boy said. He twisted a pencil between his fingers as he read over Winter’s shoulder. “Umber, Qibli and I can sing the melody an octave lower, but ah… you can’t.” 

“No, I can’t,” Winter agreed, scowling. 

“Aw come on,” Kinkajou said. “Cheer up, you can sing a _ton_ of high notes. And your vocal range is almost wider than Moon’s!”

“Hmm,” was the only response. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Winter caught Qibli hiding a smile. 

“I like it!” Umber offered, tipping his head at the paper. “And also for the second verse, Winter and I can sing it? I think?” 

“Hang on,” Turtle said, flipping the sheet to the other side. “Oh, yeah I think that would sound really cool. Let me just… mess with stuff for a bit. It’s a really great idea!” 

Umber grinned, small and satisfied. 

“This is going to be AMAZING!” Kinkajou declared. “We’re _definitely_ going to win with this song.” 

“Wait!” Qibli said suddenly, sitting up. “We forgot a band name.” 

Winter slumped forward, letting his head bang against the table. He saw Moon wince at the sound.

“Ugh,” he muttered. “I can’t believe we forgot that.” 

“Oh that’s easy,” Kinkajou said, waving a hand. “We’ll just pick something cool from the song!” 

Turtle scanned the paper, as Umber piped up, “The only things that sound cool are ‘Songbird’ and ‘Jade Dragons’. ‘Miracle’ too, I guess, but that’s sort of meh.” 

“‘New Monarchy’ is a possibility too,” Winter added, and Qibli snickered. 

“Of course you’d like that one, _Your Highness_ ,” he teased. 

Moon blinked at the paper, ignoring Winter as he lunged at Qibli. “‘Miracle in a World’ sounds nice, even if it’s pretty long.” 

“Those all sound super cool,” Kinkajou noted, typing them into her phone. “Expect for ‘New Monarchy’ because… just no. Sorry Winter.” 

Winter shrugged. “What can I say? Titles are hard. And names. Same thing, really.” 

“I like ‘Jade Dragons’,” Turtle offered. “Remember? We were first assigned to the Jade Winglet.” 

Kinkajou lit up, shouting, “YES!”

“I like that too,” Moon agreed, smiling. “It’s like a reminder of how we first met.” 

“It’s settled then?” Qibli asked. “It sounds good to me, what about you Winter?”

Winter nodded, and Umber chimed in in agreement. 

“Okay then!” Kinkajou said. “We’re the Jade Dragons now! We should celebrate!”

Winter raised an eyebrow. “How? We’re nowhere near old enough to drink.” 

Qibli laughed. “See, this is why you’re my best friend. If you really wanted though, the Outclaws ha—”

“Nope!” Moon declared, cutting him off. “Nuh-uh, no alcohol. It’s _illegal_ , Qibli.”

“Alright, alright,” he subsided, still grinning. “I’m just _saying_.” 

“We’re doing _nothing_ illegal to celebrate,” Moon said firmly. “We can hang out in my and Kinkajou’s room, and we’ll get chocolate and watch a movie or something.” 

“Moon always has the best ideas,” Kinkajou agreed. 

“Let’s do that,” Umber said. “What time?” 

“Hmm,” Moon glanced at Turtle. “When are your lessons with Tsunami done?”

“Around six,” he answered, checking his phone. “Oh… I should really go now.” 

He snatched up his stuff quickly, waving at the others on his way out. “Bye! See you guys later!”

“Bye!” Kinkajou called. 

The rest of their friends echoed her, and Winter waved as the door slammed shut. 

“We’re really doing this, huh?” Umber said softly, in the silence that followed. “Wow. We’re actually entering the contest.” 

“We’re guaranteed to instantly get publicity if we win,” Qibli added. “This is _huge_.” 

“We’ll do amazing,” Kinkajou reassured them. “I _know_ we will.”

“No you don’t,” Winter scoffed. “But thanks… we will.” 

“ _Winter_ ,” Moon scolded, but there was no edge to the word. She smiled at him. “What movie should we watch?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ngl it’s kind of surreal to be posting this fic after so long. This AU is one of my favorites, and although I don’t like the direction it took before I’m really excited to start again. Thank you for reading! And if you would like to, please leave a comment below (I will die of happiness, seriously).


	2. Kinkajou

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot to post today (-.-;) oops

Kinkajou was very, very worried. She’d said to her friends they’d do fine, and she meant it. But there was still this worry in the back of her mind, an endless chant of song lyrics and _what if_ s.

“ARGH!” she yelled, flopping back on her bed. Moon looked up from her desk, blinking.

“Kinkajou?”

“’M fine,” she mumbled against her quilt. She really should change the color scheme again, she’d had this one already for two months. “Just, you know, I can't concentrate on my homework.” 

“Ah,” Moon said knowingly. “Well, if you need help I’m here. Go take a break and make another charm, maybe it’ll help.” 

“Hmm,” Kinkajou sighed. “Sure, I’ll try that. Thanks Moon.”

“Anytime.”

She sounded amused. Kinkajou huffed, but she smiled as well. She was about to pick up her computer when a knock came from their door. 

Moon glanced at her, and Kinkajou shrugged. She didn’t remember anyone coming over.

“Coming!” Moon called, pushing her chair back to open the door. On the other side was Sunny, one of the founders of the school and a member of the Jade Dragons. 

“Moon! Hi!” she smiled at them. “And Kinkajou too, of course. Right, so you were planning to enter the contest?”

“Oh, yes,” Moon said. “We were.” 

“Great! You’ll do awesome, I’m sure.” Sunny opened the binder she’d been holding and flipped through the papers. “Can you come by my office at lunch? All of you who are participating please, you need to fill out some forms.” 

“Oh, okay,” Kinkajou said. “How are you? You look… tired.”

Sunny laughed. “I’m doing okay. But it’s a music school, so the contest is making everyone excited. I’ve been running around all day.”

Kinkajou winced in sympathy. “Well Winter, Qibli, Turtle, and Umber are with us, so don’t bother with them. We can let them know.” 

“That’s good,” Sunny said, grinning. “I’ll see you two around. Bye!” 

“Bye!” Kinkajou called, and Moon waved. 

Sunny threw them a salute over her shoulder, before she vanished down another corridor. 

“Ugh, paperwork,” Kinkajou muttered, as soon as she was out of earshot. 

“Oh come on, it’s not _that_ bad,” Moon said, nudging her lightly. “Oh, wanna go check if the piano room is free?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Kinkajou said enthusiastically. “No more algebra, _please_. Let’s go, let’s go!”

Moon giggled. “I’m coming.” 

  
  


* * *

“Two hundred and forty five dollars,” Qibli said, placing the bills back in their collection box. “Plus a handful of quarters and change.”

“We should split up,” Umber observed. “And do more than just music. Kinkajou can sell some of her jewelry or something, it looks pretty good.” 

“Oh, that’s right!” Kinkajou shifted through her pockets until she found a little chain. She pulled it out, and hanging on the end was a tiny dragon charm, painted in metallic rose gold. “I made it during art class. I’ll ask if I can take some more clay, we should each have one!” 

“Case in point,” Umber said, grinning. “You already have a small hoard of charms, so we can sell just a few to cover a lot. Like… ten dollars for each?” 

“That’s a lot,” Turtle observed.

“But some people,” Qibli added, nudging Winter, “Have the extra money to spend.” 

“I already _said_ I’d add a hundred dollars for the fee,” Winter complained, glaring at him. “But it’s not like I can go to my family and say ‘Oh, you know the school you didn’t want me going to? Guess what! I need money for a contest there!’.” 

“I know, I know, calm down,” Qibli muttered. He draped himself over Winter’s back, propping his chin on the other boy’s shoulder. 

“Get _off_ ,” Winter scowled. Kinkajou rolled her eyes at them and turned back to the others. 

“I can do that,” she said. “If I ask Tsunami’s permission to put a poster up in the hallway?”

“Good idea!” Qibli called from where he and Winter were scuffling on the ground. 

Moon sighed, while Umber and Turtle were trying to hide their smiles.

“I want a gold one,” Qibli added, nodding at the charm Kinkajou was still holding. “Give Winter like… a spiky silver-blue one.” 

“ _Spiky?_ ” Winter demanded. “What’s that for?”

“Your personality, obviously,” he answered, then ducked as Winter threw a sheet of paper at him. 

Umber and Turtle had given up stifling their laughter, and even Moon was smiling fondly as she shook her head. Kinkajou grinned and tucked the charm back into her pocket. 

“Alright, back on topic,” Moon said. “We need a logo, a place to borrow the fancier equipment, and more money.”

“You and Umber should do the logo,” Winter said. “But Kinkajou should pick the color scheme.” 

“Yeah, let the artsy people do it,” Qibli agreed, nudging Umber with his arm. His grin turned thoughtful. “I can ask Thorn if we can borrow some stuff from the Outclaws, but we have a big shoot coming up so I don’t really know if we can get that much.”

“I’ll ask my sisters,” Turtle offered. “And my cousins.”

“Great!” Kinkajou said. “Hmm… I’m selling charms, and we should do three people in two locations to get more attention while performing. Uh… we can save money instead of getting extra snacks?” 

Winter snorted, “The only significant difference would be from you.”

“Hey!” Kinkajou put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “Well, fair. But still!”

Winter shrugged. “I speak only the truth.” 

“This is why Qibli said ‘spiky’,” Kinkajou huffed. “Anyway, _you_ don’t have any other ideas, so there.” 

“A bake sale?” Turtle offered. “Although… none of us are really good at baking.” 

“Moon is okay, and Qibli is pretty good at cooking stuff that _doesn’t_ involve an oven,” Kinkajou added. 

“Eh, we got at least one new thing,” Qibli shrugged. “It’ll do. And Umber’s idea was a good one.” 

“Yeah, it was,” Turtle agreed. “Besides, we can borrow money if we _really_ need to.”

“Great!” Kinkajou picked up her phone and stashed it in her backpack. “How soon is the contest again?”

“Uhh,” Turtle glanced at Qibli.

“Don’t look at me!” Qibli yelped. He pointed in Winter’s direction. “Winter’s the organized one!”

“In just over a month,” Winter said, with a look on his face that suggested he was greatly suffering from the idiocy of his friends. 

“Um,” Umber said. “That’s… really soon. Like way, _way_ too soon.”

“That’s plenty of time,” Qibli said cheerfully. 

“It’s actually not,” Winter argued. “If you think about the logistics and planning needed for such a huge event—”

“We get it,” Kinkajou interrupted him. “We _know_. That was the entire point of meeting today, remember?”

“Yes, yes,” Winter rolled his eyes. “I remember.” 

“Stop it, you two,” Moon scolded. She glanced at the clock. “We have to get to class. We’ll join up later to discuss this further?’

“Sounds good,” Turtle said. The rest of them nodded. 

“Let’s go then!” Kinkajou said brightly. 

As they parted ways outside the room, Kinkajou could hear her friends talking, cheerful and full of hope, and she grinned. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought! Kinkajou is always such a fun character to write for.


	3. Qibli

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I have pre-written, so updates might slow down a little bit from here :( sorry guys. 
> 
> Aha I nearly forgot to post today ^-^; forgive me -_-

“Two weeks,” Qibli shouted, flopping face-first into his bed. “Two weeks until the contest! I’m freaking out, Winter, help me.” 

“You’re a member of the Outclaws,” his best friend deadpanned. “You are _not_ freaking out. In fact, you’re perfectly calm and collected, you just like attention.”

“Haha, very funny,” Qibli said, muffled by his bed. He rolled over. “But seriously, I’m worried.”

“You? I doubt it,” Winter scoffed. “And in any case, if we lose, we lose, and there’s nothing stopping us from getting up and trying again.”

“Aww, you really do give the best pep talks,” Qibli beamed at him. “Thanks, that helped a little.”

“If I could read minds,” Winter was grumbling. “Yours would be pure _chaos_. A storm of perpetual confidence mixed with worry. Ridiculous.” 

“And _yours_ ,” Qibli shot back playfully, “would be shiny and spiky and painful to look at.”

“Good, I don’t want you in my mind,” Winter said. He glanced over at Qibli’s homework. “Oh hey, you got this wrong.”

“What? No I didn’t.”

“You _did_ , you forgot to change the inequality _again_.”

“Give me that,” Qibli snatched the paper. “Oh. Oops.”

“Ha.”

“Oh stop looking so smug,” Qibli glanced out the window. “They’re releasing more information on the exact requirements for the contest today, right?”

“Already did,” Winter answered. “I looked it up. They’re playing it up for publicity, so it’s a pretty long event.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“Geez, you’re so lazy,” Winter muttered, but obliged. “Basically, they’ll pass a hundred groups from the audition. Then the first round eliminates half, the second eliminates them until ten groups, and the third ranks the top five. The winners get prize money and deals with companies and that sort of stuff.” 

“That’s stressful,” Qibli remarked. “Ah well. We’ll probably make at least the audition and the first round, because we _are_ pretty good. After that… I dunno.”

“We’re hugely inexperienced compared to them,” Winter added, as if he needed more things to worry about. “High schoolers and college age people are competing as well.” 

“Stooop,” Qibli grumbled. 

Winter snorted. “Go correct your homework.”

“Fiiine.”

* * *

“We have two songs written, plus the first one Winter wrote ages ago,” Kinkajou said, and Turtle made a note of it on Qibli’s computer. “You said three rounds plus auditions, right?”

“Yep!” Kinkajou poked her head over Turtle’s shoulder. We need at least two more songs, and if we make the top five we need another for the finale.”

“I have a few _really_ rough drafts,” Winter said. “Either Umber or Turtle needs to meet up with me so we can refine the lyrics to fit a tune, and then we’ll need to practice them.”

“It’ll be hard, but we can do it,” Kinkajou nodded her head. “And the sweatshirts we ordered should come soon! Oh— I also have your charms. Here.”

She reached a hand into her pocket and pulled out several small charms, dangling from short chains.

“I attached them like this so you can use them as keychains,” Kinkajou explained, handing them out. She giggled when she reached Winter, “yours is spiky silver, as requested.” 

“Oh my god,” Winter muttered, but he was smiling as he took it.

“Ooh, gold,” Qibli peered at his charm. “Thanks!”

“They’re all slightly different,” Kinkajou beamed. “Actually, it was because I couldn’t get them to look the same, but shh.” 

“They look so cute,” Umber said. “Thank you!”

“You just have to promise you’ll wear them at all times during the contest,” Kinkajou said. “Anyway Winter, show us the songs!”

Winter rolled his eyes at her enthusiasm and gestured for her to hand him Qibli’s computer. Qibli watched as he pulled up several lists of notes, and a couple of photographs of messily written papers. 

“Tell me which ones you like best,” he muttered, and set about fidgeting with his charm. 

Qibli thought it was kind of adorable, that his best friend tried to be so proper and uncaring but actually fidgeted a lot—he was always writing, or playing with his pencil, or braiding tiny braids in his hair. 

“Am I allowed to choose all of them?” Kinkajou asked.

“No,” Winter scowled. 

“Yes,” Qibli said at the same time.

“I think just chose three for now,” Turtle said, ever the one to offer a compromise. “We can do more later.”

“Ehhh fine,” she muttered. “Oh, Moon, I like this, what do you think?”

“It’s nice,” the other girl offered, having remained mostly silent the entire time. “I like the concept a lot.”

Qibli glanced over to the song they were looking at and nodded approvingly. “I agree. We’ll choose that one, then?”

The others agreed, and they continued searching through the little notes, squinting sometimes at Winter’s neat but tiny handwriting. By the time an hour had passed, they’d chosen the songs they liked the most, and Winter had agreed on a time to meet with Turtle to refine them and write out the sheet music.

Kinkajou was humming a song by the Outclaws, doodling tiny flowers on a sticky note. She had a little smile on her face—confident, a little excited—that Qibli envied. He’d never really been concerned about rankings before, or the results of a contest. 

It was just something that Thorn worried about. His job was to perform, perform well, be friendly with the fans, and then live his life as a normal kid, while the older members of their dance group managed the publicity issues, performances, schedule, and all the rest of the technicalities. He and the other orphans that Thorn and Six Claws picked up had never cared much about if they won first place or not.

“Contemplating things?” Kinkajou asked, startling him. 

“Yeah,” Qibli answered. “I guess… I never really realized how much work starting a band was. I _knew_ , but not… not really.” 

Kinkajou shrugged. “That’s true. A lot of things you take for granted, until you realize that not everyone has those luxuries.”

Ah. Qibli sometimes forgot that she came from the RainWing area of Pyrrhia, where most of the kids were orphaned and didn’t get picked up by misfit bands like the Outclaws. Kinkajou had been one of the tougher ones, having survived with Tamarin, her blind friend, for a while on their own. 

“That’s true,” Qibli said. He didn’t really have a good response.

Kinkajou didn’t seem to mind though. She just gave him a little smile and turned back to the others, just in time to argue that _no, meeting at seven in the morning was torture, Winter_. 

Qibli smiled. They were great friends. And they’d be an awesome band too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get a little backstory exploration here, and some more scheming for the contest lol :) 
> 
> Feedback is always, always welcome!


	4. Turtle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed two updates in a row. Wow, yay me -_-
> 
> Uh, anyway, sorry about that and sorry about this chapter being a bit shorter than usual :(
> 
> Hope you enjoy...?

“Too quiet,” Tsunami scolded. “Remember, the stage is not the place to be shy or modest. You have to show that you’re there, not melt onto the floor like a puddle. Peril’s words, by the way, not mine.”

“I know, I know,” Turtle mumbled. 

“You’re doing great though,” Tsunami added, seeing the look on his face. “Really, you’ve improved a _lot_. You still need to work on your confidence though.” 

“Ah yes, here it comes,” Glory said from her perch on the nearby desk, where she was listening to something through earphones. “Tsunami’s famous ‘it’s all about attitude’ speech.”

“Oh shut up,” she grumbled. “It’s good advice!”

“Yes, but not when you hear it hundreds of times,” Glory answered. She rolled her eyes. “Turtle, right? Confidence doesn’t come from nowhere. Find something you _know_ you’re good at and… I dunno, channel it? It comes to you after a while.”

“That’s what I _said_ ,” Tsunami huffed. 

“Yeah but you’re awful at explaining things.”

Turtle sighed as he watched the two of them poke fun at each other, staring at his guitar. Glory… had a point. He supposed she knew what it was like, going from a talentless girl chosen as a last-minute replacement to one of the world’s most-known singers. 

_What am I good at though?_ he wondered.

Writing the music, maybe. Helping to keep the peace. Doing behind-the-scenes work, when he could. Singing on stage? In front of a huge audience? Not so much.

“It’s terrifying at first, but you’ll learn to brush it off,” Tsunami had admitted to him a while ago, when she’d just helped to start the Academy and was helping him apply. 

The thing was, Turtle wasn’t very good at brushing things off.

Not being able to find Anemone’s teacher in time when she had a massive allergic reaction? Turtle remembered that like it was yesterday. The few times he’d arrived late in class and everyone was staring, he remembered too. 

“Oh, darn it,” Tsunami said suddenly, snapping him out of his thoughts as she jumped up. “I had a meeting scheduled today. Turtle, you’re doing okay, right?”

“Yeah,” Turtle nodded his head. “Fine.”

“Stop lying,” Tsunami said, pausing in stuffing her things into a backpack to ruffle his hair roughly. “If you’re not doing so great, I can… I dunno, tell mother to back off? What is it this time?”

“I’m fine, really,” Turtle said, reaching over to properly order his older sister’s binder. She gave him a clearly unimpressed look, and he admitted, “Nervous. But I’m fine.”

“Oh,” Tsunami’s worried expression mostly cleared, and she beamed at him with all her teeth. “That’s fine, then. You don’t have any pressure to win, you know. And think about… warm fluffy feelings. Sunny said it helps? Somehow?”

“It doesn’t,” Glory called. “Tsu and I need to think about violent, angry feelings. One of the few things we have in common.”

“Exactly,” Tsunami agreed, which only served to confuse Turtle. “Come on, you’ll do great. See you two later! Bye!”

“Don’t die,” Glory called lazily after her. 

“Drive safely!” Turtle amended.

“Maybe!” Tsunami shouted, and then she was gone, leaving the two of them in the empty classroom.

“Sunny is better at this kind of stuff,” Glory said suddenly, sitting up and pulling an earbud out. “But Kinkajou says I need to be nicer to people, so I’ll try. 

Turtle turned to look at her, as she continued, “Your friends believe in you and themselves, so don’t be the one person who doesn’t, alright? You don’t have to be all cheerful, but don’t… hmm, don’t be Starflight, okay?”

That comment startled a small laugh out of Turtle, and Glory grinned at him.

“Okay,” Turtle nodded. “I… kind of get that.”

“Basically, don’t overthink things,” Glory summarized. “And don’t worry about being too reckless, because as long as you’re not as bad as Tsunami, you’re good.”

“Is this your method of pep-talks?” he asked, half-joking. “Insulting your friends?”

“Absolutely,” she answered, dead-serious, and put her earbud back in.

Turtle smiled at that, and started to carefully pack up his music and guitar.

He left a few minutes later with a wave to Glory, and soon he was out the door and walking quickly back to the student dormitories. He had to meet up with Winter, to finish the last bit of their last song. 

The other boy was waiting for him, and nodded once when he arrived, turning the screen of his—Qibli’s, rather—computer, without saying a word.

Turtle didn’t mind. He and Winter only spoke if it was necessary, normally letting their more talkative friends fill the silence with their chatter. 

“This line sounds wrong,” Winter said after a few minutes, indicating the spot with his pencil. 

“Hmm,” Turtle squinted at it. “The rhyme is off a bit, maybe?”

Winter shrugged. “Maybe. I’ll work on it.” 

They descended back into comfortable silence, with only the occasional scratch of pencils or the tapping of computer keys once in a while. Turtle ran through a few lines of notes in his head, only partially paying attention. Glory’s earlier attempt at a pep talk stuck with him, for some reason. 

While in between marking notes for Kinkajou’s song, he thought about the pressure on stage. When he finished and passed the paper to Winter for him to examine, he thought about how horrible it would be too loose, but how amazing it would be to win. When Winter passed it back with a nod and pointed out a line with an unspoken question, Turtle wondered if _he_ ever felt like this. Winter went back to typing, and Turtle realized he was, in Glory’s words, ‘being a Starflight’. 

_Don’t overthink things. Okay_.

“I can practically hear you worrying,” Winter announced suddenly, looking irritated. “If it’s about the science exam on Monday, you’ll do fine. Moon can dig up her notes or whatever. If it’s about the contest, there’s no use worrying. You’ll just bother everyone else.”

“Sorry,” Turtle mumbled. But he felt the last bits of doubt start to slip away, at Winter’s blunt words. They’d never go away forever, he was sure, but it helped. He offered Winter a smile. “I’m almost done with this sheet.”

Winter made a face at him, but nodded and went back to his work. Turtle took a deep breath, forcefully shoving his thoughts away for later, and did the same. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought ^-^;


	5. Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I am so sorry I forgot to update >.<
> 
> uh... only one day late though??

Moon woke up to excited screaming from Kinkajou. 

“I love it! It sounds so good! Oh my gosh, this is amazing. You guys are the best!”

Moon blinked at the small, flowery clock they had, perched on the dresser. It read just before six in the morning. Moon frowned and yanked the covers back over her head. 

She loved Kinkajou, she really did, but it was the _weekends_ and Moon needed _sleep_. Of course, that also meant that it was the _weekends_ , and Kinkajou saw the need to drag her around endlessly, with excited chatter.

“Moon, wake up!”

“Sleep,” Moon insisted, but pulled the covers off her face. She squinted at the excited expression on Kinkajou’s face, and amended, “Just ten minutes?”

Kinkajou made a face but nodded. 

Moon smiled sleepily at her friend and flopped back onto her bed. 

In the next ten minutes, she didn’t actually fall back asleep. Once awake, Moon stayed awake, so it was more a short rest than any extra sleeping time. She appreciated it anyway. 

“Ten minutes are up,” Kinkajou announced, and tossed her phone to Moon. “My song! They finished!”

Moon smiled fondly and picked it up from where it had fallen on the quilt, and glanced at the screen. Kinkajou must have been calling Winter earlier, she realized. Only he would be up so early. Moon pressed play on the audio file, stifling a yawn.

There were no words, since neither of them could hit the highest notes, but the melody still drifted through the room, bright and cheerful and very Kinkajou-esque. Moon beamed as she handed it back.

“I love it,” she said. “Let’s go tell them that they did a fantastic job.”

“Obviously,” Kinkajou agreed. “After breakfast?”

Moon nodded. “After breakfast.”

* * *

They met up with everyone a few hours before noon, skipping off to the beach to play around and shower Winter and Turtle in praises and splashes of cold water. 

“Catch!” Qibli shouted, flinging his hand towards Turtle. Turtle yelped when he saw what Qibli was holding, scrambling away. 

“Qibli!” he complained. “I thought you’d actually throw the starfish at me!”

“Don’t worry,” Qibli assured him, with a grin that said to worry very much. “I was aiming for Winter.”

He got a splash to his face for the comment, from the very drenched and somewhat irritated aforementioned Winter. Qibli beamed and splashed him back. 

Moon sighed as Kinkajou snuck up on them and dumped a bucket of water over _both_ their heads—where had she even gotten a bucket?—but she was smiling too, as she and Umber watched the chaos. 

“They’re crazy,” Turtle moaned, squeezing water out of his shirt. “I like water, but not _splashed_ with it.”

Umber agreed wholeheartedly, and the two boys scurried away to hide behind Moon, a safe distance away from their other three friends. 

“Cowards!” Kinkajou hollered.

“You mean _sensible people_ ,” Winter hissed, voice just barely discernible over the gentle waves and distance.

“No, she didn’t,” Qibli corrected, snickering as he splashed his roommate with more water, and then yelping in protest when Kinkajou did the same to him.

“I really didn’t,” she agreed, giggling, and skipped out of range of the next wave. 

“Tsunami is going to yell at us for this,” Umber commented, more for the sake of mentioning it than out of any actual hope it could convince the three to stop.

Turtle shuddered. “She was in a good mood yesterday, but I do _not_ want to encounter a mad Tsunami.”

“You,” Umber told him, “are the only one in this friend group that I respect. Besides Moon, of course, because she’s an angel.”

“You big sap,” Moon teased, throwing her arms around the two for a hug. “Someone go find food, that’ll work.” 

“Genius!” Qibli shouted. “Absolutely! Go do that!”

“And get lots of sugar!” Kinkajou added, bouncing up and down.

“What are you, five?” Winter grumbled, squelching his way out of reach of the waves. “Don’t answer that.”

“Five stars, yes,” Qibli agreed, ignoring him completely. “Don’t worry, all of you are too.”

“Aw, thanks!” Kinkajou said, beaming. She hooked an arm through Winter’s, ignoring his half-hearted protests, and grabbed Qibli, dragging them both towards Moon with surprising strength.

“If Moon is an angel,” Umber mused, “Would Qibli or Kinkajou be the devil?”

“Me,” they both declared. Kinkajou turned to frown at Qibli.

“You can share,” Moon compromised, and turned to include Winter in her next statement. “You’re all soaked now, you’ll feel weird for the rest of the day.”

“I don’t mind,” Qibli grinned. “It was worth it to splash Winter.”

“Boys,” Moon chided gently, as Winter grumbled something under his breath. “Be nice.”

“That’s our Moon,” Turtle said, grinning. “Always looking out for the troublemakers.”

“Excuse me, I don’t need ‘looking out f—”

Winter clamped a hand over Qibli’s mouth with a roll of his eyes. Kinkajou giggled at his exaggeratedly outraged expression.

Then Umber announced that he’d spotted what could be an ice cream stand, and despite it being early fall, and much too cold for ice cream after a splash in the ocean, Qibli and Kinkajou bounced off cheerily, wth promises to bring extra back. Moon smiled as she watched them go.

“I,” Winter said gravely, “Have made an error in my decisions. Why am I friends with them.”

“Because they’re awesome,” Moon said, nudging him lightly.

Winter sighed, sounding dramatically like Qibli for a moment, and turned his gaze to the sky with a ‘why me’ expression.

Moon just smiled again and patted his shoulder. They _were_ awesome friends. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls forgive me -_- scream at me in the comments if you wish?


End file.
